Located along the Great Lakes and considered part of the Midwest, Ohio has always been a state about progress. From the construction of the National Road to the many canals, railroads, and eventually highways that crisscross the state, Ohio has managed to intertwine transport, industry in progress in a unique way. Of course, as things move forward others must be left behind and the Buckeye State has been no exception to this rule. ​

Former coal, company, and canal towns disappeared as the industry that supported them dried up. Rural communities polluted by bad environmental practices from two of the state's largest cities found themselves fade into Ohio’s only national park. The expansion of Ohio's capital devoured one prominent community while others found themselves drowned out. Religious and idealistic colonists found that life in a utopia was not as perfect as it seemed. Strange mounds and shapes carved into the earth give a ghostly reminder of the first peoples to call Ohio home. ​

North Carolina is a state with a geography as diverse as those who have made it home. Coastal shores and barrier islands give way to piedmont plateaus and eventually the forested slopes of the Appalachian mountains. Home to dozens of native peoples that made their homes in these various regions, North Carolina soon saw an influx of Spanish, British, Scots-Irish, Quaker, English, German, Dutch, and enslaved Africans. Today, the state is home to one of the largest banking centers of the country and a major region known as the "research triangle."

The state is also home to one of the arguably most famous lost cities of all time: the Lost Colony of Roanoke. Over the years, other towns have followed suit, disappearing back into the wilds of North Carolina from which they first came. Despite the dangers and isolation, some made their homes in the hollows and hills of the mountains or on the barrier islands off the coast. Moonshine helped see some struggling towns through tough times while river transport and mills maintained others. Whether by design or accident, some communities found themselves flooded through the waters of new lakes, rivers and heavy rains. While remnants of these communities may be few and far between, their stories have helped make North Carolina the place it is today.

Often overshadowed by the populous city that bears its name, the state of New York is a place full of mountains and lakes, heritage and history. Its diverse geography consists of ocean beaches, lakeshores, river valleys and mountains. Once dominated by Algonquian and Iroquoian-speaking peoples, the state was fought over by the French, Dutch, and English before gaining independence. Since then it has become a haven for immigrants from the world over.

Its long history and diverse peoples have made the state of New York what it is today, but despite having one of the largest cities in the country, not all communities in this state turned into major metropolises. The idea for an ideal company town led to one of the biggest environmental disasters of the day. The needs of growing communities buried others under bodies of water. Industries ranging from mining to railroads to mineral spas built and then doomed once-prosperous communities. Early forts sometimes were the difference between survival and death for settlers in contested colonies. Despite no longer being on the map, many of these forgotten places helped create the New York we know today.

While considered a mountain state for its location along the Rockies, most people think of New Mexico as a desert state, a place where ancient native tribes, Spanish conquistadors, Mexican vaqueros and American cowboys once roamed the dusty, wild lands and awe-inspiring rock formations. Known today as a the Land of Enchantment, the state’s more modern history of nuclear testing and alien sightings has somewhat rebranded it from a wild west landscape to a home for the bizarre. ​

New Mexico sometimes seems like a place where there are more ghost towns than inhabited ones. Sometimes, New Mexico can seem like a place haunted by its past. Ancient native peoples once dominated the region in a prehistoric civilization that mysteriously disappeared. Freed slaves and buffalo soldiers tried to gain some measure of equality in the new west while others hoped to strike it rich in various mining towns. The coming of the railroad built and busted various communities as wild west outlaws sought to remake other settlements in their own images. ​

Known for its beaches, pine barrens, factory towns and suburbs, New Jersey is sometimes considered more of a thru-way between Philadelphia and New York City or a retreat destination for those coming to "the shore" and Atlantic City, the East Coast answer to Las Vegas. Over the years, the state has attracted waves of immigrant populations who have helped fashion New Jersey into a unique state, known for its culture of diners, slang, music, and often being the butt of jokes told by urban centers throughout the state. ​

There is a lot more to the Garden State, and much of New Jersey’s unique history can be found in places that technically no longer exist here. Early mining and milling companies helped bring the first major industrial revolution to the country. Wealthy millionaires attempted to establish their own beach resort communities on the famed Jersey Shore. A mix of rumor and history fuel the mysterious tale of a missing Pine Barren community, and escaped slaves built a town of their own after fleeing across the Delaware River. Each one of these lost communities tells a story about how New Jersey was shaped into the state it is today.

The gambling capital of the country, millions come to Nevada each year in the hopes of striking it rich. Largely desert and covered mostly by the Great Basin, the name Nevada means “snowy” after the snow capped mountains the Spanish encountered in its north. However, cool temperatures is not exactly the state’s most famous trait. Lenient laws and instant wealth have long been the two biggest draws to this state - even before the first casino went up on the Vegas Strip.

Nevada has always attracted those wanting to get rich quick, whether that be from mining the ore found throughout the state, banking on the need for water in its dry climate or tricking others out of their hard earned cash. Many of the ghost towns and lost cities found ruined throughout the state are testaments to those who came here in the hopes of finding their fortunes, and, despite the ruins they left behind, occasionally succeeding. From native peoples to religious hopefuls to cowboys to day laborers to prospectors,profiteers, shysters, hucksters, charlatans and thieves, ghost towns set the stage for some of the Silver State’s most colorful characters.

​In the heart of the Great Plains, the rolling prairies and banks of the Platte River in Nebraska today serve as part of the nation’s breadbasket, a state just as well known for its agriculture as its unique bluffs, mountains and natural features. At one point, it was home to numerous tribes including the Apache, Omaha, Missouria, Ponca, Pawnee, Otoe, and various branches of the Lakota Sioux before it became a French then Spanish then American territory. Known for its wide open spaces and sparse population, about 89 percent of cities in Nebraska have a population of less than 3,000.

As a result, many towns across the state may seem like ghost towns despite the fact they have thriving communities by Great Plains standards. However, there are towns that have disappeared back into the prairies and rolling hills. Forts along the frontier aided white settlers in westward expansion while native peoples attempted to regain their land. Early black homesteaders managed to eke out a community of their own on the prairies. French, German, and Bohemian settlers made their mark on early communities while industries like potash, silica mining, and the railroads created others. Mormons and Catholics searched for religious freedom west of the Missouri. All of these stories can be told through the ghost towns of Nebraska.

Montana is a wild west state that was never truly tamed, a place where folks are so far and few in between that an independent spirit and sense of self-sufficiency are almost a requirement to live here. Cattle ranching, railroads, mining, homesteading, and the military brought many early residents to this state, and some might say not much has changed since the first white settlers arrived here. ​

Much of what made Montana what it is today can be found in its forgotten places, in the abandoned communities that thrived and then died in this rough and tumble state. Old mining towns and stagecoach stops harken back to the days when going west was synonymous with getting rich - and occasionally dying trying. Cowboys, calamities and sinners converged on outposts each in the running for the title of the west’s wickedest city. Soldiers worked to both keep the peace at home and abroad at towns that became their camps. Bootleg booze and fresh water made communities that came out of and disappeared back into nothingness.

Where the Mid West meets the South you will find the state of Missouri. Known for its barbecue, wine, beer, jazz, ragtime, and as the gateway to the West, Missouri is known for its residents healthy skepticism, the novels of Mark Twain, and swing state status. Once the home of indigenous mound-builders and the Missouri tribe who granted the state its name French and Spanish colonists, German immigrants, Mormon missionaries,both anti- and pro-slavery guerrillas, and Ozark traditionalists, have all left their mark on Missouri.

By tracking down the old and forgotten places of Missouri, we can learn much more about the history of the state that served as a crossroads between east and west. A once-thriving railroad town is now known as the location of a violent typhoid outbreak. An ingredient used to make Agent Orange leads to the evacuation of an entire community. Flood waters wash away prominent transportation hubs on the state’s major rivers while healing waters attract visitors from around the country to a former resort. ​

Named for the great river that makes up its western border, the state of Mississippi is often the place most people think of when they hear the words “Deep South.” Once part of new France and then Spain, the state became known for both is placage system of freed blacks as well as its history of slavery and cotton plantations. By the time the Civil War broke out, more than half of the state’s population was enslaved. Even after the war ended, Jim Crow laws and the fight for desegregation played roles in the state’s ongoing legacy. ​

One way to learn about the history of the Magnolia State is to study its lost places. From the port towns that highlight the heyday of steamship travel on the Mighty Mississippi River to the communities King Cotton helped build, these lost towns show not only the economic rise and fall of the state but how changing times and technologies affect everyday lives. Efforts to Americanize a Choctaw settlement led to the beginning of the Trail of Tears while a naval skirmish outside a small steamship port may have changed the course of the Civil War. A former mill town provided invaluable information in the fight against malaria and a farming community helped make new discoveries about yellow fever. The grounds of a NASA testing facility hide the remains of three once great logging towns, and a notorious highwayman haunts a Natchez Trace ghost town.